Patreon LogoYour support makes Blue Moon possible (Patreon)

Rape Camp (skittish_butterfly & littlerooster)

The Sergeant's long strides were matching Jen's pace with ease, reminding her of when she was so much younger and struggling to keep up with Dad. She was too hungry to think about her Dad or she'd end up depressed, so she listened with half a mind to the Sergeant's miracle strategy for snagging women, while the other half scanned hungrily ahead for the type of place she presumed the Sergeant was taking her: anything with a drive through or trucks parked outside. Both halves of her mind ended up surprised as his strategy was apparently little more than chatting, and his choice of restaurant looked unexpectedly inviting.

As he opened the door for her Jen tried not to bristle and didn't bother with her usual "no, after you soldier" -- especially since he was no mere platoon buddy from Basic but her Sergeant. She looked around. Nice place. Smelled good, like actual food rather than just grease. But tablecloths and flowers too? Actual printed menus and not just a board with prices written in chalk? She followed as the Sergeant led her to a table where they sat face to face and waited for menus. "Just talk to them?" Jen took a quick, meaningful look around. "I think you've got a few other tricks up your sleeve to, Sergeant, wouldn't you admit? But you do talk a good game." Jen wondered how many waitresses he'd sat and seduced in this very seat, "just talking to them."

Finally a waitress came up. Young, sweet looking. Very feminine, with her skirt and her brightly painted nails and all the bangles and baubles, shiny bracelets on her delicate wrists, glittery band in her thick dark hair. And the lipstick. Jen touched her lips and couldn't help checking the Sergeant's reaction to the pretty young thing. He certainly had a type.

Jen accepted a menu from the girl, trying to be gracious as her stomach rumbled and her lips felt very dry. "I'd like a glass of water and a cup of coffee to start, if that's ok." The waitress nodded without writing it down and headed off. Jen wondered briefly how all these girls who probably failed half their classes in high school before waiting tables managed to keep all the orders straight and write them all down properly at each table an hour later when it was time to pay. Maybe needing to keep the job helped. A little motivation could help anybody learn something knew, apparently.

She turned to the Sergeant, ready to ask for his recommendation, but he was already listing half the breakfast menu's options as his order, waiting to hear hers. She looked at the menu for a second and then back at his eyes, waiting to hear what she wanted. It was the listening, not just the talking. Sergeant could talk, but she had this feeling from him that he was constantly paying attention to the details about her, as if he had to write a report about her even when the program hadn't started yet. It was a little unnerving, but... flattering and rather appealing too. It wasn't hard to imagine the Sergeant nailing a lot of younger more impressionable girls this way.

"Uh, well Sergeant, I could probably just live off whatever you can't finish with that order, but if you don't mind I think I'd like some toast, the fruit plate and a bowl oatmeal." Mom's breakfast.

She set the menu down on top of the Sergeant's, ready for the waitress to take away along with their orders when she was ready. Jen looked out the window, the town so picturesque in the morning mist. "So this is where it all began? What drew a small town boy to the Army? Didn't you want marry the Mayor's daughter and settle down and raise a bunch of kids, all that crap?" Maybe the Mayor's daughter didn't have the right shade of lipstick back when the Sergeant was young and on the prowl.

The waitress came back just then, the question still hanging between the two of them. Jen jumped into the gap and ordered for them both, it was only courteous, but seemed to fluster the waitress a little, whose eyes kept flitting to the Sergeant as if Jen was violating some rule of nature. By the time the waitress had repeated the order back and then checked with the Sergeant explicitly to make sure she got it right, Jen's mind was no longer on the question, and her eyes followed the exaggerated sway of the waitress's hips as she turned and left, checking the Sergeant's gaze as well. A girl's looks. Was that really all it boiled down to in the end?
 
Nathaniel watched the waitress walk away after Jen had placed their order, she was walking with an exaggerated sway, he called it the pendulum swing, "tick, tock, tick, tock" he said in his head with a grin.

"Oh Becky!" he called out to the waitress "Baked beans as well thanks" he said to her as she nodded and added it to his already huge breakfast order.

He looked at Jen as if to say "what!" in that way guys do when they have done something despicable or are having impure thoughts. He always liked to read name tags, especially cute women or women in general the amount of discounts or freebies he had gotten because he took the time to notice a woman's name in some way rather than ask her for it. People give away a lot of free information he always thought. You just have to keep your mouth shut and watch what is going on to tune into it in the end. Look at name tags, name plates on desks, photos, if on the phone, take note of their names when they introduce themselves, pick up on regional accents, heritage, pick up on all of it, use it. He could have been one of those fake clairvoyant guys if he wanted to, all they did was read people, listen to what was and wasn't being said.

He looked at Jen and even though he could tell she had forgotten her question he decided to pick up on it anyway. "Well, no, I never wanted the family and mortgage and 2 cars and a dog thing, life by numbers all of that I think, I wanted to do something different in some way, the Army offered me the chance at all of that, some adventure, some freedom, got to blow things up and shoot at people", he laughed knowing that he wasn't joking at all.

"And as far as the Mayor's daughter goes, well lets just say, she was over rated" he winked at her.

Becky their waitress came back with the food they ordered. Nathaniel's order taking up half the little table.

He looked at Jen's and smiled "Well if you are still hungry after that little bit of toast, order something else, don't go picking at my plate, I need it all, I'm a growing boy!" he said to her humourously and yet serious at the same time.

The waitress laughed as well and looked at him with doe eyes as if Jen didn't even exist before finally walking off with that tick, tock, tick, tock hip motion.

"A nice girl, but I think jail bait" he said to Jen, before continuing "So, what about you, no guys chasing you around or stashed in different bases?" he said putting the spotlight back on her.
 
Jen shrunk in her seat as the Sergeant called out to Becky loud enough for the whole restaurant to hear that he wanted baked beans too, like he was roughing it at a field canteen and not sitting over a nice cloth-covered table. Like he was at home. This wasn't home for her. She tried to sit up again, and picked up the hot coffee cup Becky had brought.

She busied herself with careful sips and saucer maintenance as the Sergeant espoused his army-centric world-view, one not to far from her own views, bequeathed to her by her dad. She wasn't so much against having a family exactly but it just wasn't important, not like making a difference in the bigger world, like Dad. If the cost was a delay in starting her family, or ending up with only one car instead of two, so be it. Her dad had paid a much higher price.

As he laughed about blowing things up, Jen finally got to laugh with him, feeling like it might be the first time they'd shared the same joke. That definitely felt better. Jen tried to loosen up, taking another sip to wet her lips as the Sergeant all but besmirched the reputation of the Mayor's fine daughter, whoever she was.

Becky had to make multiple trips to bring Sergeant Kruger's full order, and Jen was already digging in with serious intent, Becky having to pull her hand back from Jen's plate to avoid a painful fork injury. Jen looked up as the Sergeant kidded around, making Becky laugh too. She could see it, the girls falling for him from just a little talking, sharing that little bit of himself. He did it so easily. Jen finished chewing a bite of toast before reassuring him she wouldn't risk getting in his way.

Jen was half-finished with her plate, working on the fruit as the Sergeant slowed his own fork long enough to reassure her he had no designs on the young waitress, that she was probably jail bait, and to ask about her own situation.

That slowed her down and Jen chewed more slowly and thoughtfully as the Sergeant watched her like the Grand Inquisitor. She didn't realize how big a mouthful she'd bit off as it went down hard, and she chased it with half a glass of water before looking back to the Sergeant.

"Well, first of all, after watching my platoon mates in Basic bed half the local high school, I have to give you props Sergeant for keeping your hands off the kindergarteners." She turned and squinted at Becky for a moment. "Although, I wasn't so sure she was underaged myself. You have a finely honed sense of exactly when the fruit is ripe it seems." She smiled.

"As for me? Nah, not right now. No time for anything serious." Jen could see in his face immediately she'd left open the question of the not-so-serious, or maybe she was just imagining it but it was hard for her to tell the difference. She couldn't help feeling a bit defensive almost automatically after all the dinners at the family table in those last years trying to justify to her mother why she hadn't settled on a boy yet, why she never called back that nice Schwartz boy she'd been setup, why such a pretty girl acted like the boys would be buzzing around forever... and on and on.

"It's not like I... like I'm some lonesome loser or anything. I had a brief fling with a guy on another school's track team in high school, and I fooled around with a grad student in college. Soon enough, though, they wanted more from me than I could give, not if I wanted to blow stuff up as well." She chased a rolly-polly grape across her plate. "But if this is the don't ask, don't tell section of the test Sarge? Don't worry, I'm not. I'm straight as an arrow. I just don't want all that personal mess, the hormones and the drama and the possessiveness, to get in the way of my studies and succeeding here."

She let the Sergeant chew on that for a minute. "But you seem to have it down, ey, Sarge? Fish in the small pond you don't have to visit too often, hook 'em and throw 'em right back. Hey, I'm not criticizing Sergeant. It makes sense. Who's got time to pry a girl's needy clutching fingers off every morning when there's a country to defend." She glanced around the restaurant. "Keep your eyes open for any cute busboys, maybe we could double date tonight." He had to see she was joking, but it seemed to lame to come out and say so explicitly.
 
Nathaniel sat back and listened to Jen talk about her plans for romance which consisted of not much. She seemed to want to portray herself though as having had some boyfriends, it was rather refreshing to hear her talk about so few men, most women were her age would of listed a litany of sexual encounters that would have sounded like a porn star's resume.

Even a woman as young as tick tock the waitress would have already sucked a 100 miles of cock, probably starting at some extremely young age where she was just starting to get used to life without her toys and dolls.

She still seemed to be relating to him as though she were were skirting a line, wanting him to be a comrade, a boss and a lover all at once, she danced it well at times and embarrassingly badly at other times. He couldn't blame her though, this was a weird situation, one that would only get stranger with time. Not many recruits have to bond like this with their drill Sergeant, but the WASP was like nothing else ever, so it was new for everyone.

He looked at her as she chased the grape around the plate. "It's ok Jen, I get it, sometimes relationships can take a lot of commitment and it can be for nothing, I can see that" he said to her trying to relate to her.

"Well, sometimes a night is a enough" he said to her regarding her catch and release comment.

His phone went off, a text message. "Sgt, it is Col Sanders, you are to deploy to Camp earlier, please arrange yourselves to be at camp in 2 days". So that was it he thought, kind of better than waiting a week.

"So it looks like we will be going to camp earlier, in 2 days, so after we shop for panties we will get our tickets" he said to her.

He responded to the Colonel's message and finished his breakfast, ordering some coffee for himself and Jen.
 
The Sergeant seemed to actually understand, none of that business from him wondering why a "pretty girl like you" doesn't settle down and all that. Sorry, Mom, Jen thought, just in case her mom was somewhere up in the clouds where she could hear her thoughts, but that's just not me, maybe someday, but not now.

It felt like a relief to feel the Sergeant actually on her wavelength. Then his phone went off, just a text message she could tell from following his eyes. Jen started feeling impatient again, like every time she started to feel like she was scoring points with her future trainer the stupid waitress pulled his attention away with her clingy text messages.

Then the Sergeant looked at her and hit was like he could see what she was thinking. He made what felt to Jen like an over exaggerated show of explaining the message was about their delay being shortened. It wasn't from the waitress, either waitress actually. It was from the base. Two more days.

"Just two more days? Thank God." Then she mentally kicked herself, realizing he would take that to mean time spent with him was a living hell or something. It was stressful and... challenging in a way, and had her on edge, but it wasn't hell, exactly. She opened her mouth to explain it but he was already lost in responding to the text message, and she wasn't even sure he'd hard. By the time he was done tapping away she just dropped it as he ordered more coffee for them both. "Thanks. A little more coffee would be great. Two days. I'm really eager to get to the training, you know, so that's... that's good news. Still, that's more than I packed for, so once you're finished with your personal buffet there we probably I'm really going to need to buy some panties, maybe even another outfit so I can clean up my cammies. Is this... I don't want to sound all money-focused and everything, but just... is this little shopping expedition going to be on Uncle Sam's credit card? Or mine?"

She finished her lukewarm coffee, waiting for the waitress to come back for the hot caffeinated jolt she really needed, and watched the Sergeant make short work of that order of beans he'd added.
 
As Nathaniel responds to the message he hears the thank god comment, not wanting to make her feel bad, he ignores it, he knew what she meant and it really doesn't matter either way. This is the first time he has had this type of interaction with a trainee, it is all very odd and will just continue to become more so. At the same time, he will also be her counselor, she will be expected to debrief with him after training sessions and he is to analyze and log her experiences and feelings about it all. In short, "Rape Camp" could just as easily be called "Camp Head Fuck".

She was asking if her shopping spree would be billed back to Uncle Sam, it would indeed actually, all of this was staged, it was a big excuse for the two of them to get to know each other, Nathaniel expected it of course and considered that his last report on Geller made the Colonel decide to move things forward.

"Yes, it is, I will pay for whatever you need on the Army credit card, what kind of panties and underwear are you buying?" he asked her rather directly, he thought it was time to ruffle her up again a little, she wanted to go pantie shopping, but could she talk about it?

"I know what type I am hoping for" he said with a grin.

Tick Tock the waitress came back, he decided he was in game mode for the day.

"Becky, I am curious, which college do you go to?" he asked the bemused waitress.

"Oh, I don't I am just 16, helping out here, it's the family diner" she answered and then smiling embarrassed at Nathaniel she walked off.

"Ah yes, you can never go wrong, when you think they are younger, guess an older age, when they are older go lower. Told you though, jail bait" he said looking at Geller. He wanted to play today, it would be a fun time and he knew it.

They finished their coffee and Kruger paid the bill, when they left, he looked at the receipt, Becky had written her number on it, he showed it to Geller before tossing it away, he just wanted her to know that he could have been having a 16 year old tonight, it was time to take the gentleman gloves off, if Geller wanted to be special forces then it was time to treat her special he thought.

"You know Geller, I will also be your counselor at the Camp, so anything you ever need to talk about you can come to me, and when training starts we will be having regular debriefs" he said to her.

"Now lets find the pantie shop" he said laughingly.
 
Buying panties on the Army's credit card, what would her dad say if he ever heard? Army credit cards were for things like booze, and cigarettes and hookers. Well, hookers needed gifts like chocolates and panties, so maybe it wouldn't sound so strange to him, except these panties were for his own daughter, a soldier not a hooker.

But live in reality, that's what he always said. Solve the problem in front of you first, and then solve the next one. The problem in front of Jen, as she fidgeted with her hot coffee cup, was the Sergeant's question. What kind of panties did she plan to buy? The answer should have been easy: whatever was cheapest and got the job done. But every time he asked her a question it felt like finals week all over again, and that old fear of answering something wrong took hold of her again, light one wrong answer could mess up all her chances. It didn't make it any easier the way he was grinning at her, teasing her about the kind he was hoping for as if she was the waitress's older sister he was thinking about with nothing else on.

It was the Army's money. She was a soldier with a job to do. The "right" answer was obvious. But she didn't want to come off as aloof to that camaraderie that had to build up in a unit, the way she always heard the guys in Basic joking around when they thought she couldn't hear. Could she risk being pigeon-holed as the girl who couldn't fit in? The one left on the outside because, too sensitive to play along?

Jen's mind was still figuring out how to answer the panties quiz properly as her mouth was already moving. "Well, um, I'm sure we could get a good deal on plain white cotton Hanes for Her at Target. That always works for... well, that, or," and she did her very best to laugh even though she felt incredibly awkward, "we could see if there's something pink and low cut and frilly -- in case there's a cute waiter at lunch." She wasn't sure which made her feel more uncomfortable, her awkward attempt to laugh it off, or the color on her cheeks she could only disguise by taking a long slow sip of her coffee, holding the cup in front of her face with both hands.

Fortunately, the spotlight of the Sergeant's gaze left Jen as the waitress, Becky or whatever, came back and the Sergeant immediately started flirting with her again even though he was making the big noble pretense of keeping his hands off the young unripe fruit. He was so obvious about it too, asking the girl what college she went to, and Jen was irked by the way the waitress smiled back at him and twisted her hair around her finger as she explained she was only 16. As if she was even going to college. Jen couldn't help noticing the way his eyes followed the young girl's hips as she sauntered back to the counter, that exaggerated motion all but advertising how the Sergeant had just made he day.

Of course he had to disguise the whole thing as if he was just giving her a demonstration in the proper technique for picking up young tarts, or old ones as the case may be, he didn't seem that picky about it. "Yeah, well, with guys, that's not what you exaggerate, but whatever gets your helmet into the foxhole I suppose."

Jen was so uncomfortable again. Any promise of a connection between them, a friendly relationship she could build on in training, seemed like it was getting lost under pink frilly panties and come-on lines for picking up jail bait. Any time she thought she had the Sergeant's shallow nature clearly in her sights, he surprised her with a bit of depth and introspection. And then once she thought she recognized his unusual depth, he immediately went out of his way to show how shallow he was. She couldn't peg him, couldn't predict him. It irked her.

Sergeant Kruger managed to pay the bill before she could make any kind of a deal about it. She didn't even bother this time now that the next few days were openly on the Army's dime. But of course he had to show her the bill. No, not the amount. He pointed her eyes further down, under the Becky and the little smiley face heart, where her phone number was written. She couldn't stop herself from giving him a little shove in his big bicep, as he grinned and tossed it away, letting him know he was such a pig. "Jail bait, Sarge, geez. Even after last night's bootie call you're still so horny you can't wait another year or two?"

She watched his eyes as they walked on, half expecting him to duck back for a second and pick up the phone number if she didn't watch him. He just laughed and made sure she remembered he was going to be her counselor, the one she would have to turn to after exercises if she needed to talk things through. "Just great. I hope you'll be able to fit me in to your schedule, when you're not busy bagging the teeny boppers." She shook her head, half joking, but half worried about the idea, wondering what would happen if she ever did need any real advice or guidance. They couldn't seriously expect her to count on the Sergeant. Just the way he smirked and strung out the word debrief... as if it was the funniest thing ever. But he was already on to his next amusement, and Jen just felt like she was along for the ride. The "pantie shop" he laughed.

"You big doofus!" She could see his expression, suddenly on the edge of stern, as if she'd gone just a bit too far, all his laughter suddenly no carte blanche for her to talk that way. She did her best to nuance it without giving in. "Sorry, I mean, Sergeant Doofus, Sir!" She gave him a little salute even though they weren't really on duty. "They don't sell panties in a panty shop. You just go to a regular store or a lingerie place. You must not have sisters. Or girlfriends, or..." Or he was just teasing her? It was so hard to tell with him sometimes.

The vast gulf between those two choices, Walmart or Victoria's Secret, suddenly struck Jen. The thought of browsing through a lingerie store was far enough from her normal routine as it was, let alone doing it with the big Sergeant in tow. It was nothing at all like she was used to, picking them up in bulk on sale at Target.

Jen looked away for a moment until she felt the heat in her cheeks fade, trying not to think about lacy little nothings in the Sergeant's big hands, trying to help her decide which color was right for her. It took a minute.

"So, what's nearby? Maybe a... a Target or a Walmart? Or Macy's?" But she saw that little smirk he thought he covered up. He was still laughing a little. Better to get ahead of it, don't get left behind looking like an even worse doofus, she reasoned. He was going to bring it up himself anyway, she was almost certain. Almost. "Or... uh, maybe Victoria's Secret? Anything will work." She was looking at the houses on the other side of the street again, feeling too hot to face his smirk again yet.
 
He had her mind in a spin again, he could see that. He had been in a spin himself until just a few moments ago, trying to work out how to train someone for this special role. The Colonel subscribed to General Patton's quote "Tell someone what to do or how to do it, but never both, they will surprise you with what they come up with". That said what he came up with was that this was still training for a Army unit, if he were a drill Sgt he would break her down in order to build her back up again.

So this is what he would do, he thought. He had to make her realize that in a WASP unit, her best weapon was her femininity, he had to make her realize this, she thought he was flirting with women all this time just because that is who is was. And of course in part it was but it was to show her that the feminine woman gets her man, she gets the attention, she can make the hardest warrior surrender, she hadn't quite got that yet, she was still resisting.

She was still making jokes about casual sex and picking up women, she was trying to bond with him as a fellow soldier, as a man. She made jokes about what he called the pantie shop and wanting basic white panties at Target.

"I think we can find something nicer than that" he said.

"But no god awful G strings, the most unsexy things ever invented" he said to her laughing.

He paused as they were walking. He looked at her seriously for a moment and took out his mobile phone.

"There was one woman, her name was Laura, she was from Spencerport, New York, 6ft tall, long strawberry hair that would change colour depending on the lighting, a soft spoken voice with that hushed kind of accent they have out their, nice high tones, curvy, beautiful as you can see, busty and kind. She always made me melt, every time without failure. I wanted to marry her, even had the ring, never met anyone like her, never will ever again. She passed away 6 months ago, I am still a bit of a mess at times over it." he said to her choking up a little as he got emotional.
 
The Sergeant seemed to know how to let all the embarrassment out of the balloon without popping it, as he easily deflected her awkward rambling about panties and Victoria's Secret into a safe little joke about G strings. Jen actually turned back to him, even though her cheeks were probably still pink and laughed with him. "G-strings? Oh my God yeah, they're the absolute worst! I would never..."

She trailed off at the sudden change in the Sergeant's expression. What had she said wrong? It was impossible for her to keep up with him in conversation. He looked heartbroken, over G-strings?

He started talking. Her name was Laura, and as he described her she sounded like another of his beautiful conquests, so perfect and curvy. Jen could imagine this Laura probably spent hours in front of a mirror every time the Sergeant came over just making sure her lip stick matched the color scheme of the restaurant he was taking her to. She sounded like that, the way he talked about her. The more he talked about her, though, the more she could see how she had really captured his heart. Could a woman like that really be more than a weekend roll in the hay for a guy like the Sergeant? But he was talking about how she made him melt, and it almost made Jen melt inside to hear it from him.

He'd wanted to actually marry? Jen's eyes were wide, about to repeat his words with incredulity -- he wanted to marry? a woman like that? -- but she kept quiet as he grew even more somber. The ring, everything. The Sergeant. Unbelievable, even a guy like this falling all over himself for...

A girl who died. Then she saw it, what a wreck he was inside over this Laura girl. Jen swallowed hard herself, his sadness contagious as her heart felt for him. He was the big crass Sergeant, but his pain was real, and Laura had clearly captured his heart and then taken a big chunk of it with her. Jen couldn't even stand herself for having felt petty about the way he described her. She'd thought of her as just another waitress on his list of tawdry takedowns, but apparently what she had meant a lot to him, and Jen couldn't help wondering if the pretty flirty little waitresses he kept getting involved with were like Laura. Maybe that was what he really needed? Or was he just looking for a substitute to soothe his pain?

Jen took a hesitant step closer and rested her hand lightly on his forearm. "Sarge, I'm so sorry. She sounds... sounded... I mean, Laura must have been an amazing woman." Nothing like Jen, but perhaps there were different kinds of amazing. "I know it's no help really, but give it time. The pain never leaves fully, but you find a place in your heart to put it, where it feels like you can bear it. It just takes time." Jen lowered her gaze too, reflecting on her loss.

They walked really slowly and Jen kept the contact on his arm, just to let him know he wasn't alone, or maybe so she wouldn't feel alone, she wasn't sure.
 
It was all true the Laura story, he loved her, he wanted to marry her, maybe start a family, have the kids, the dog, the picket fence and the grossly sized unnecessary in the suburbs SUV. In Laura he found peace, he found that nothing else mattered and in that short time he knew her he had built a world around her, she was his everything, his every breath, every heartbeat was all for her, he hated saying that aloud and probably never would because it was all so corny but he did tell Laura, Laura knew what she meant to him, and then one day she was driving home and in seconds her life was taken all because some idiot college boy couldn't see the red light, he wiped her out. His world destroyed in moments, that is how fragile life and happiness is, one minute you are high on happy then next you are plumbing the depths of depression and darkness.

He felt her hand on his forearm, he used Laura's story to from a tighter bond with her, to show her what would be needed in her training. To show her what her real power was.

There was just one problem, he had thought too much about Laura now, the way Jen just touched him as well sparked some kind of feeling in him, maybe because of Laura's thoughts or maybe because she touched him in a way that Laura used to when he was upset about something.

He teared up, he lost a little composure and in his mind he just said fuck it, he grabbed Jen and held her. Held her as he struggled to stem the flow of tears and a minor breakdown. He held for a few moments and then realizing where he was and what was happening, he released her.

"Sorry, sometimes I lose it a little" he said to her.

He looked at her and smiled again, "So lets go get some frilly stuff, if you still want to that is?" he asked her wanting to go back to a lighter method of communication, it was something that happened to him sometimes, he would get wound up in thoughts of Laura and lose the plot a little, he was getting better at it, but it still happened.
 
Jen stared at the concrete, keeping her fingers gently on his arm as their steps slowed and then stopped, afraid to actually look at the Sergeant. It was mostly out of respect for his feelings and his privacy, she told herself, but inside she felt her own emotions rising up in sympathy with his, she just couldn't face them yet like Sarge.

Fully stopped next to a garbage can and a big tree as cars passed by on the road, Jen suddenly felt his other arm reach for her. His hand settled at her waist, his thick fingers long and strong enough to grip her like almost like a doll. They could train her all they wanted, but in that moment Jen instinctively recognized she hoped to never have to square off with one of the guys, have to grapple or wrestle for her life against someone like Sarge. Jen just knew she wouldn't stand a chance. Pressure points and fancy grips wouldn't make a bit of difference against an opponent made of granite and all but twice her size. She gasped in shock at the sharp insistent pull, her back bending a bit as he drew her easily right to him.

Jen's fingers lost touch with his arm as he wrapped her up, both of his big arms almost crushing her, her face buried against his massive chest, and she couldn't help noticing his clear masculine scent and maybe just the slightest whiff of... waitress. But then she felt him shaking against her -- was Sarge holding on to her and actually sobbing? -- and Jen's heart just went out to him even as he all but crushed her. The way he reached out with his feelings was something she'd rarely experienced, never from her own father, something her mother had always complained about. So she tried to relax, gave up the instinctive need to pull away from him and let him draw her body to him. Her arms went uncertainly around his thick body, scarcely able to reach around his broad chest and shoulders and back, and she gave him a few awkward thumps the way the guys always did with each other, unsure what was appropriate, before finally just letting go and holding him gently in return, pressing her face fully into his beating heart and feeling his chin and cheek against the top of her head.

It was a brief moment, over practically the moment she'd accepted it for what it was. The Sergeant let her go and stepped back, apologizing, as if it was something that never should have happened, just as Jen was realizing she was glad it had.

Jen just shook her head and sniffed like it was allergy season, her fingers delicately brushing back a bit of stray hair pulled loose from her pony tail and smiling awkwardly, shoving her hands in her pants pockets so she wouldn't wipe at that feeling in her eyes. It took her a second before she was able to meet his gaze, before the emotion wrapped like choking fingers around her throat let her talk. "No, no Sergeant, it's ok. No need to apologize." How could she be so wrong about him over and over? Just because he had a crass side, was a man with normal male needs, it didn't mean he was shallow. He was deeper than she could believe. Her fingers missed touching his arm, but she kept her hands stuffed in her pockets for the moment, knowing that would just be wrong.

The Sergeant slowly found his smile again, putting his disguise back on. But now Jen saw beneath the mask even as he wore it. Frilly stuff. That's what he wanted to get. Fine, then so be it. Maybe that would cheer them both up. It certainly looked like it would make the Sergeant happy, and with the feeling of his body all but sobbing against hers still fresh in her memory, that was good enough for Jen.

She nodded, sniffing again, and smiled, the mood lightening up. "Sure Sarge. The frilly stuff. Pink and pretty and ribbons, right?" She looked at him and saw the mask, but also what hid just beneath it. He was probably thinking about Laura still, she realized. That's probably the kind of stuff Laura wore. Jen was nothing like Laura, she knew, but she couldn't help wondering if maybe a little bit of frill might look good on her too. She had her own feminine curves, not so much chest like the way he described Laura, but Jen knew she had the body for it -- not that the Sergeant would ever see. But she couldn't help having the thought.

They started walking together again, this time with a destination. Somewhere frilly. As the Sergeant led the way towards Frillesville, or wherever he had in mind, Jen finally gave herself permission to take her hands out of her pockets again and wipe briefly at her eyes like a little dust got in them.

She thought about making a crude joke to fit in with the Sergeant's mood, but stopped herself. It just didn't seem right after the way he'd turned to her with so much emotional need, so real and direct. Maybe she didn't have to work so hard to fit in with him, maybe she already did if she just followed the path Laura had already mapped through his heart. He himself had said they were building a unit of women for a reason, and there was more than one way to be female. It didn't have to be all sex jokes and being one of the guys.

"Maybe a bra too?" She thought about it a second, imagining different looks on herself. Even though she was small, a bra might be pretty, and maybe the thought would help buoy his mood too. "Something with lace?" It was so not her, but it could be, at least for today. She could always drop the stuff in the nearest garbage can when they finally broke for camp. But for now, she could try it out, nothing but a tiny experiment in Sarge psychology, to see if it made him see her differently even though he wouldn't even see it on her under her heavy cammies, but just knowing she was wearing something like that underneath, like Laura. He should have a say in which ones she chose. That would probably work the best, she thought.
 
Nathaniel could sense that Jen was experiencing some kind of emotional influx, he could see her eyes staring at the ground, not used to this level of intimacy with a fellow soldier, especially a male one and one that out ranked her. It was still mid morning, some cars drove by and they were standing near a rubbish bin a midst the mid morning haze.

He had just held her, he did that right? He couldn't bear it any longer, he had opened up a deep wound, he needed to feel something warm against his body. He need to feel comfort and comforted. He knew he was way out of line and yet it was the human need which took over, it needed what it needed and that was the end of the story. He had pulled her close to him, his strength pulling her close to him, she didn't have a chance to even say no or pull away, she was already in his arms. He wasn't sure what it would be like now, now that they had this encounter.

Nathaniel was always sensitive and self aware, perhaps at times too much of both. He knew that there could be ramifications for this act and would just work through it when and if it happened. What could she really say? "The Sarge hugged me when he had a mini breakdown over his dead girlfriend?" I mean yeah, she could do just that, it could be classed as sexual harassment, the Politically Correct world being what it is. And yet it was the same PC world that created this squad, this all female squad which would require it's female members to be raped, and taunted to be sexualised and abused. The world sucked and people were the worst, he decided.

But she did hold him, she held him "back", her face pressed against his chest and he knew he was practically crushing her, pushing her body into his own as if to somehow try and engulf her, merge her into himself as if that was possible and would make anything better anyway. The emotional side of him had taken over and he had cried in her arms. Openly sobbed in the streets, he was big enough to get away with that, who was going to call this huge man a sissy, and who wanted to find out what could make a man of his size break down like that, to find solace in a little woman's arms. He knew he would never want to know if he was seeing the same thing.

He had managed to compose himself not long after the embrace and separated himself from her, he apologized and saw that she was sniffling a little as well, caught up in his emotions.

She was telling him not to apologize, trying to console him, he relaxed a little, reality coming back to him, no longer worried about harassment cases and the like.

He took his phone out and showed Jen some photos of Laura, "I guess you should see what all the fuss was about" he said to her as he showed her some snap shots of Laura. Long hair and curvy, busty yet not out of proportion. A huge smile on her face and warm brown eyes that made him smile every time he saw them.

He made a joke about getting some frilly stuff, well not a joke at all, that is what they were going out for, panties for Jen, he had hoped that he could convince her to buy something better than Target or as he sometimes called it "Tarjay" clothing, he wanted to get her something really special, something sexy and that felt nice.

It was a real exchange, the hug, telling her about Laura and yet it was a good training device as well, he made her see that it was her femininity that he turned to, not her tom boy soldier side. He had to keep drumming that into her, making her realize the effect that had on a man.

He thought about her scent when he was holding her closely, she smelt of soap, it was nice and calming, he liked overpowering perfume as well but for now it was enough, it worked for his breakdown and it gave her a softness that he knew was there but that she was hiding from him.

She suggested that they might get her a bra as well, it was starting to work he thought to himself.

"Maybe we can look at some perfume for you as well, let me spoil you a little Jen. All part of the training of course" he winked at her as if it were a joke, but knowing it wasn't.

"Sure we can get a bra as well, lets go all out and see what we can find" he responded.

They continued walking and came across a boutique store, black and red trim around the frontage and a big shop window, lavishly decorated within, by a thick rug a love seat and some mannequins wearing French lingerie.

"Looks like frilly to me" he said laughing, happy to have a lighter mood.

They walked in and the inside looked like a night club, dully lit, moody and sensual. Racks of lingerie of various kinds.

"Well I guess we start looking" he said to her.

The store manager a woman in her 40's, busty, very ample body yet sexy and soft, with blonde hair with French curls and wearing a business type suit came up to them.

"Hello I'm Rachel, is there anything I can help you with, something you had in mind?" she asked in a husky voice, looking Nathaniel up and down.

"Something for your girl?" she added referring to Jen.
 
Perfume too? Jen had just a moment of worry he was delicately hinting that her scent was field-ripe, but she had just showered before falling asleep in his bed, and her panties were freshly handwashed. It was the Sergeant's wink, though, and the way he put as "spoiling her a little" that relaxed her.

He didn't think she smelled bad. And smelling bad wasn't even such a bad thing really -- soldiers smelled bad all the time as she knew all too well -- but strangely it was a relief the Sergeant didn't think she smelled. Maybe it was the beautiful pictures of Laura he'd showed her still having an effect. Laura never stunk, Jen could just tell. Probably wore perfume every day. Jen thought it might not be so bad to smell nice. Maybe it would remind the Sergeant a little of Laura, make him feel better.

The mood slowly lifted and lightened as they strolled together, looking at the little shops on the main street, no big, soulless warehouse distribution centers here but mom and pop, bricks and mortar type places. As they reached a small but fancy looking storefront with elegant appointments inside and mannequins displaying lacy wisps of clothing so feminine Jen would have felt duty bound to puke if not for the Sergeant's presence, and Laura's image hovering invisible in the background. He seemed to recognize how awkward she felt about the little shop and he laughed like he was coaxing her to keep up, not to let the mood sink.

"Well, ok. I guess a little frill never hurt anybody." Not that she knew of at least. Still, it was almost impossible for her to imagine herself in some of the racy items on display, all of it designed to show off a woman's charms, to openly advertise her desirability rather than her ability to properly discharge a firearm. A bra and panties, that she understood. They were at least functional. Even if they were pink and full of lace and ruffles they still served to support what needed supporting and conceal what needed concealing, simple as that.

The door chimed as they walked in and Jen was immediately struck by the scents, florals and citrus, like one of those bath and fragrance stores she always steered clear of. Jen was used to shopping in stores that smelled of efficiency and cleaning products, not like a gypsy's bedroom. The space was dimly lit, like it was intended for candle-lit dinners rather than shopping. Everywhere Jen turned there was satin and ribbon and lace, little scraps of colorful fabric designed to reveal rather than conceal. Every instinct told Jen this was not the place for her, that it wasn't too late for them to leave and get directions to a Walmart, but she did need some clean things to wear, and it was only for a day or two. It would all end up in the bin soon enough.

The Sergeant seemed perfectly at ease, like he was no stranger to this kind of place. He invited her to look around with him, and Jen took a deep breath. Experiment in Sarge psychology, remember? if Jen could make the Dean's list and field strip an M-16, she should be able to flip through a few flimsy undies and come up with something she could wear. But this was the point where Jen had always been used to her mom stepping in and picking things out for her. Trying to decide whether purple panties with black lace trim or low cut red satin bikini bottom was better, Jen didn't even know how to decide such a thing.

Jen was browsing with a bemused look on her face. The Sergeant stood beside her and his eyes seemed to know what he liked. Jen felt clueless, but continued looking around as if she had something in mind. That was when the slightly older blonde woman stepped forward. She looked nothing like her mom, but Jen sensed just a touch of her mom's spirit in the woman.

The woman, Rachel, introduced herself and Jen started to offer her hand but quickly sensed that was going nowhere. Part of her was relieved by the distraction of the woman's presence. But that was outweighed by her sudden discomfort at being asked what she had in mind. She wanted to say she had shopping at a different store in mind, but knew that would just be rude. And she was the one who had agreed to this frill ride.

Then she saw how the woman was talking to the Sergeant, her eyes all on him. Typical. Jen was relieved though, realizing she wasn't on the spot just yet, and maybe wouldn't have to be if the Sergeant just handled it. But then the woman went just a little too far. Something for his girl? Did she really say that? His girl? Her insides whirred about like a puppy chasing its tail, but all she knew as her face grew hot was she could not let that comment just hang in the air like that. She told herself it was to honor his memory of Laura, that it would just be wrong to even suggest something like that.

As uncomfortable as it made her, Jen stepped forward and cleared her throat. "I...I'm not *his* girl, not anyone's girl." She felt her cheeks getting hot and Jen hated that. What could she do? Answer the woman's question. How hard could it be? "I... I don't have anything... specific in mind." She glanced at the Sergeant, trying to see where his eyes were drifting and maybe just pick that out whatever was catching his fancy, but he was looking at the woman too now. "I was hoping for maybe panties and a bra? Oh, and..." she glanced at the Sergeant again, "I guess some perfume. Nothing too flowery though, nothing bees would sneeze over."

Jen touched soft silky fabrics, all so delicate and light. Lace or ribbon, red or purple or pink, french cut or whatever cut. It was just too much for her. "What do you recommend?" She wasn't looking directly at the woman or at the Sergeant, just wanting someone to help her pick something, buy it, and get out.
 
Nathaniel knew the perfume thing would confuse Jen, he knew himself when someone gave him cologne or mentioned it, that it was a subtle way of saying that he stunk. He just wanted to spoil her though, he liked being with women, not just horizontally, but in general, they often confused him and sometimes could make him feel rather jaded but he still liked to be around them all the same.

He could still smell Laura at times, he had her perfumed letters, carefully locked away so they wouldn't lose their scent, they were precious to him, her scent would hopefully live on forever.

Some of the lingerie in the shop was definitely challenging the whole two army buddies going pantie shopping theory, corsets, stockings, garter belts, this place could outfit a brothel, the lace alone was enough to make him hard. He felt her awkwardness and felt it was a good thing, this was part of her training, she would be required to wear things like this as she practiced stripping and pole dancing.

The shoes and boots were driving him crazy, he wanted to dress Jen up like a doll, perhaps he could, he laughed to himself at the thought of it.

He knew that Jen would rather be doing a 20km hike right now, getting all muddy filthy somewhere miserable.

She looked at something purple and black.

"Nice colour combination, very alluring" he said to her regarding her choice.

The store manager Rachel asked if it was something for his girl, referring to Jen, he knew that this was about to get really interesting, to be fair he thought, not many mixed gender friends would come into a place like that to shop. He thought it was a fair assumption.

Not for Jen though, she felt the need to assert herself, explaining that she was not his girl, not anyone's girl, he smirked as if her defiance was cute in some way. She could have just let it go really, but whatever worked for her in the end.

Rachel was unfettered by this, in fact she smiled and just looked at Nathaniel even closer, her smiling widening, "Oh, well I am sorry to hear that Sir" she said to him, touching his upper arm to console him, but really just wanting to make physical contact with him, in some way.

He looked at her and smiled, he liked her, another nice curvy woman, well presented and frilly.

Rachel's attention turned back to Jen as she told her that she was looking for bra and panties. And some perfume.

Nathaniel smiled knowing Jen had little idea of what to pick, what to choose. He decided to dress her up, he wanted to have fun.

"Rachel, perhaps some classic French style, proper panties, maybe purple, a nice lacy bra, do you have matching garter belts as well?" he said to her with a degree of expertise.

"Oh, yes of course, let's have a look" she said taking his hand, impressed that he knew what he was talking about and had some taste as well.

She showed them some panties and a matching bra, garter belt and asked if they would like stockings as well.

"Yes, stocking would be good too" he said to her, she grabbed the assortment and then asked Jen,

"Would you like to try them on, or do I just wrap them up and then we look at the perfume" she asked her.

Nathaniel was loving every minute of it.
 
Jen heard the way the woman said she was sorry to hear she and the Sergeant weren't together, saw the way she touched his arm. She wasn't sorry at all! Jen looked with her eyes but kept her face intently on a pair of satin panties with pink little ribbons at each hip, like the girl who wore them was nothing but a pretty little package for some man to unwrap.

In the corner of her eye, Jen saw the Sergeant smile at the woman. She didn't want the Sergeant thinking of her that way, a pretty little package, too pretty to be a commando, too little to make it -- she would make it no matter what -- but the way that woman was getting so close to him just annoyed Jen, and she picked up the gift-wrap panties with their shiny red satin and pink ribbons and held them over her cammies in front of the mirror, while checking the Sergeant's eyes behind her at the same time. Was he watching her? Was he falling for that woman's act? He was still smiling at the other woman, even as the woman turned toward Jen with a smile Jen really didn't like. The woman's smile was basically saying to Jen, "See, you're not good enough, you can't compete with me." Jen heard it but knew the Sergeant couldn't. The woman was speaking a secret language men couldn't understand. Jen wasn't in any competition with this woman, so why did she care what she thought of her? Jen was going to train and become an elite member of a Special Forces unit, this woman was going to sell panties and garter belts and parade her charms in front of men because she had nothing more in her life than that. Why should Jen care?

The Sergeant spoke to the woman, not to Jen, telling exactly what he wanted. Jen didn't know what much about what he was talking about, but she was smart enough to read the signs over the various styles of panties. Rachel was already grabbing the Sergeant's hand and leading him on as if she was his commanding officer and not a stupid civilian who really had no business being so familiar with him, and it bothered Jen so much she grabbed a pair of French panties herself, before the woman could take them, like she wanted to show she could live in this woman's world too, that the woman wasn't better than her. She looked at the pair she'd selected, practically the same as the gift-wrap panties she'd looked at on the other table only these were cut so narrow in the hip Jen was sure even her pelvic bone would be on display if she weren't wearing cammies over them, and the back didn't seem wide enough to fully cover her bottom. The French certainly knew how to put a woman on display, even if they didn't know how to fight very well.

But the saleswoman -- and that's all she was really, because for all her fawning over the Sergeant, she was really just trying to make a sale, right? -- the saleswoman just ignored Jen and instead fussed over garter belts and a frilly bra with a completely different pair of French panties, like she was trying to show Jen up. And then she was pulling out stockings too, almost like she was taunting Jen, like she could tell she was embarrassing Jen and just trying to make it worse. Jen swallowed hard, trying to take all the heat in her cheeks and swallow it away. Jen hated blushing, how it betrayed vulnerability. She was a soldier, and she had no reason to be embarrassed in front of this woman, especially not just because she knew more about bras and garters and how to try to hook a man's attention than Jen did.

The woman was looking at her with a raised eyebrow as she asked if she wanted to try them on or just wrap them up and move on to the perfume, like she was challenging Jen openly. Jen glanced at the Sergeant, who didn't say a word. Just stood there leaving Jen with her mouth open just a bit, stuck between too many thoughts as she tried to figure out how to get out of dealing with this and without losing face in front of the woman... and Sergeant Kruger.

"Well... I'm sure you, uh, don't really want women trying this stuff on, you know, and then putting them back if they don't like them... that would just be..." Jen's face and wrinkled nose said clearly what she just couldn't find the right word to express. "I suppose I could try them on over my cammies or just over my cotton undies, but... that wouldn't look good so... as long as you have a return policy... I don't see any choice really but to wrap them up. But I think we'll take this pair of panties instead of the ones you chose. I'm pretty sure those would look better on me than the ones you chose." She didn't mean to be so confrontational but just couldn't help it. She just wanted to get the two of them out of the little shop and it's frilly scents and lacy decorations with sex hanging and practically dripping from every rack, and the woman practically draping herself over the Sergeant.

Jen put her selected panties down on the little pile of sexy items the woman had picked out, setting the other pair aside. Then she grabbed a small bottle of perfume off a rack next to the counter, one of like 50 bottles that all looked so different even though they were all really the same, just some glorified liquid deodorant packaged to look fancy and special. "And this, whatever it is, I'm sure it's nice. We'll take that and get going, thanks." She looked at the Sergeant, just wanted to get him out of here. Get herself out, she corrected herself, but that would mean he would have to go too, unless he was going to stay and have a go at this woman too while he made Jen wait outside. "Sergeant? This'll do right?" He had the card.
 
Nathaniel watched more than was apparent, he could see the two very different women were in competition for his attention and approval, Rachel the lingerie saleslady was quite adept and shameless at getting this attention, she was enjoyable to be around, her heavily scented skin and clothing, her make up and hair style, her clothing, it all screamed "I love men and sex", her persona was all about this. Of course it may have all been an act, after a few weeks with this woman she may have ended up the type that didn't like sex after all and just used it as a weapon to get men. But of course this was the very weapon WASP's were expected to use, the idea of a perfumed assassin, one who will make love if need be to her prey before putting it to death.

Jen had to realize that for all her military experience, that at this point Rachel would make the better candidate for what was in mind for a WASP soldier. Jen was still fighting her femininity, still thinking her knowledge of weapons and ability to run a 20 mile course was what was required of her, yet this was not the case at all.

It all came down to her looks in the end, she had the look the Army needed for their new unit, she was young and pretty, a nice body and intelligent, yes intelligence matters, as much as women like to think a man wants an idiot for a lover, they still want a woman they can relate to, even if that woman is just playing a game to flatter them. It takes brains to play that role, especially long term and more so behind enemy lines, these women were to be modern day Femme Fatale's, and Jen still had no clue.

Jen was becoming more flustered especially when Rachel took Nathaniel's hand and led him away, he could see her pick up some panties around that point and display them in front of her cammies. She was pretending to not care and yet she cared very much, she wanted her own special claim on him, he could see that but she either didn't know how or didn't think it was appropriate yet to be as shameless as Rachel, or of course, she didn't want to play that game. Not yet anyway, in the end all females knew how to play the game, he knew this, it was instinct with them, they all knew how to make a man crazy, the ones who were better at it weren't always the better looking ones, they were just the ones who were more shameless about it.

The hair toss, the coy look, the wrist turn, the legs crossing and uncrossing, he had seen it all, they all worked regardless of what the woman looked like, it could drive him crazy. He thought about the time he saw an over weight lady wearing a short skirt and stockings and garter belt, her rounded fleshy thighs just slightly overflowing the stockings, she was sexy and yet quite average if he had to be honest about it, he wanted to fuck with great urgency such was her power over him, and of course he did just that. It was the only way to get her chunky thighs out of his system. Jen had to learn that these were the things that could cripple a man, to possess his mind with thoughts of her body and what it would be like to spend a night with it.

He could see Jen starting to take control, she had had enough of all of this and wanted out of there, he smiled a little, it was once again cute to him. She refused the offer to try them on, especially as there were signs around the shop that said this was not possible anyway being underwear and all, Rachel was taunting her now, he knew she was moving in for the kill and Jen was setting up her tactical retreat, quite wisely too really.

She picked up a bottle of perfume, obviously not noticing it's name "Lady of the Night" a nice way of saying Whore of course, and he decided to just let it go, he didn't like seeing Jen this way, she had gone through enough, this was meant to be a fun experience of course, for the two of them and had turned into a cat fight of sorts over his attention.

"Sure that is fine, let's pay for it all and go leave the stuff in the room and go on a hike or something" he said to her wanting to reward her for at least entering the shop, she would get to do something she wanted to do now.

He smiled at Rachel as she wrung up the totals and he paid on the Army's credit card, they left the store and he looked at the receipt with Rachel's number on it, he wasn't that interested in her, but kept it in case there any issues with the purchases all the same.

"So, do you like your purchases Jen? When do you think you will try them on?" he asked her as they walked back to the hotel room, the street now more alive with traffic and people going about their lives.
 
Jen looked back at the woman as Sergeant Kruger stepped forward with the credit card, trying not to smirk at her, not to feel petty like she had just won some stupid girl cat fight. It was just that the woman annoyed her.

But as the Sergeant paid for Jen's lingerie, the stockings she hadn't meant to buy, the revealing panties she'd chosen for herself, and the "Lady of the Night" perfume that suddenly made her cheeks burn as she realized what she had selected, Jen saw the woman stare back at her with her own smirk. Jen felt so stupid suddenly. That woman manipulated her into having the Sergeant buy her all this stuff she didn't really want, just finding the smallest crack and... and here he was, the sugar daddy with the credit card, that's what the woman thought, wasn't it. Jen tried to glare back at her and started to open her mouth to tell the woman it wasn't like that, not what she thought at all. Not even close. But it was too late.

The Sergeant took the receipt and touched Jen's elbow as he started to head out. Jen's head hung just a little low, feeling a little sheepish as she accepted the bright pink bag with her lacy finery neatly packed inside layers of colorful tissue paper. And of course on both sides of the bag, in a looping feminine script was the name of the store that Jen hadn't realized when they walked in, "Lustful Lingerie." As Jen followed the Sergeant out, she tried turning the bag this way and that against her leg to hide the name of the store, but the bag was too pink and the name too boldy written on both sides to hide. So she hugged it to her chest, both arms wrapped around the bag so only the pink showed through as she passed through the door the Sergeant held open for her, mumbling a polite thank you, accepting the act as consideration and not patronizing condescension on his part.

The Sergeant walked beside her as they headed back to the hotel, seeming to be happy or at least at peace, and Jen was suddenly reminded of Laura. Had that embarrassing little scene back there reminded of her, of buying her nice things? Jen imagined Laura had been good at shopping for things like that, probably modelling things for him, showing off, making him smile. That was probably what was making him smile right now, the memory of her. Despite her own embarrassment and awkwardness, Jen was glad he felt good about it, the memory of his big strong body sobbing against her still so very fresh and powerful.

As they reached the hotel, people all around, the world coming to life now, he wanted to know if she liked what he'd bought -- because other than the panties which she'd just picked out mostly from stubbornness, the rest was really for him -- and when she would try them on. He still seemed to be living in two worlds at once, here with Jen right now, two soldiers who just bought lingerie together, and at the same time back with Laura, like he was smiling about her latest purchases and looking forward to seeing her in the things he'd picked out and probably slowly unwrapping her like a special present. But that was Laura, not Jen. He didn't think of her that way. He was professional.

Jen blinked and focused on the door, which he opened for her again. She slipped in, shrinking to slip past him. Brushing a bit of hair back out of her eyes she turned to watch him follow her as they got close to his room. "Well, they... uh, they really are lovely, such pretty colors and shiny. Very feminine. Yes, I like them." Or at least she could like them, she supposed, if she was going to like anything like this. "You have good taste Sergeant." She thought of Laura. Jen was nothing like her. Not really. But the Sergeant had picked these things for her, hadn't he? Maybe Jen had a little bit of Laura in her if she needed to. She wondered if her dad had picked out things like this for her mom when they were young and Mom was so beautiful, wondered if that was just how soldiers looked at women, at least some of the time. How they looked at her.

"Maybe I'll try them on now. You know, see if they, uh, fit, make sure I have time to take them back if need be before its too late." She had no intention of going back in there again. They'd fit, or at least she'd pretend they fit. It wasn't the fit. She wanted to put them on and see herself in the mirror, to see if there was anything feminine and Laura-like about her. It was so hard for her to imagine, but maybe the Sergeant had seen it, maybe it was there. "Would that be ok Sergeant? We could do the hike or whatever afterwards."
 
Nathaniel was well aware of Rachel the sales lady's game, she must have flirted with plenty of unwary men who entered the store, trying to get them to buy more then they planned on. For Nathaniel though it was all fun, all just part of this crazy WASP ride that he had found himself on, he thought back to the first conversation he had had with the Colonel, she preferred to not call it an interview, it was a conversation, to be honest he thought, it really was a conversation. She was hand picking her trainers and counselling staff, in the case of Nathaniel he was to play both parts, he was her experiment, to see how women would react to this trainer who would exploit and torment them at times and then have to open up to them, to tell them all about their experiences and degradation during the training process. It was all very very crazy, he had seen lots of crazy stuff though, he had seen kids blowing themselves up for imaginary gods and women being put on trial for adultery even though they were raped, he didn't think much about any of it anymore it hurt his brain too much. No. It hurt his very soul, his very core.

So women like Rachel could play their silly girly games, and women like Jen could get upset over it if they wanted to. It was all quite innocent and refreshingly harmless as far as he was concerned. He noticed Jen as she saw the name of the perfume she bought "Lady of the Night" he smirked a little as she cringed at it's name, then everything going into the pink, no make that pussy pink bag, "Lustful Lingerie" proudly adorned upon both sides of it, advertising to anyone who saw what the contents would be and perhaps more importantly and shamefully for Jen, what sort of woman the bearer of it might be, shock horror he thought, a woman who liked frilly soft things. Once again it was amusing for him, and yet he wasn't laughing at Jen, more curious by how all of it made her feel and what it all meant to her.

They left the store and she looked sheepish, the bag bothering her to no end, he saw her clutch at it, trying to cover it's label, as if that might help, he figured everyone in the town was familiar with the store's bags and shop name or not, the pussy pink indicated Lustful Lingerie to all. People were now buzzing about the streets and of course not one cared about the bag, not one was interested that a young woman had bought lingerie.

They arrived back at the hotel and after she assured him that she was happy with her purchases she went to the bedroom to try them all on.

"Sure, we can try the hike later today, or even tomorrow, no big deal. You go try those new things on. Too bad we didn't buy you some sexy high heels as well. Maybe we can do that when you finish making sure they all fit" he said to her, he knew he was pushing his luck but he did wonder if she would let him see her in the new clothing, to see her dressed as a woman, he didn't ask though, he was too polite and also too curious to see if she would offer.

He turned on his computer and sent another report to the Colonel.

"Colonel,

PFC Geller and I just went lingerie shopping, she tries to not let it show but she is territorial about me, as you know I receive a lot of attention from women and she tries to compete without really competing, more like trying to get in the way or intimidate the woman really. It is rather cute.

She actually did buy some sexy stuff and some perfume named whore or words to that effect, she is I think finally at least starting to embrace her femininity.

It will be an interesting time that is for sure. Still no idea if she will back out of the course as soon as it becomes obvious that her training will require her to be a femme fatale rather than a G.I Jane.

Chat again soon.

Sgt Kruger."

He put the lap top away and waited for Jen to come out, in her cammies or lingerie.
 
The Sergeant agreed to postpone the hike, and told her to go try her new things on. Jen stood in the entry way of his sitting room, waiting for him to give her the key to her own room. But instead he just talked about wishing he'd gotten her some high heels to go along with the other stuff, like what she had wasn't sexy enough for his imagination yet. High heels. Really. Did he even see her as commando material? Jen knew she had a lot to prove to the Sergeant.

No key though. Jen sighed. She could ask him for the key but that would just be making a big deal out of it, drawing even more attention to it. She shook her head, half at the idea of going back out to buy high heels -- which she'd only worn a few times before, mostly for her mom's amusement rather than her own -- and half at the Sergeant's dense forgetfullness about her key.

No matter. She was a soldier. Out on the field of battle, she'd do what she had to do, change where she had to change. No sense acting like some spoiled powder puff here with the Sergeant then. She shrugged and grabbed the pink bag with its softly rustling layers of tissue paper and satin and turned for the bedroom door. As she shut it behind her, she looked back at him pulling out his computer. "This door doesn't lock so... just... you know..." Then she clicked it shut, wishing she hadn't said anything. His thoughts and interests were obviously more on the laptop than sneaking a peek at her changing. No reason for Jen to worry about him seeing her naked. He was probably typing up official emails to his commanding officer or something professional like that -- while she'd be here in the bedroom trying on flimsy lingerie. She couldn't wait to get to camp and start her real training.

First she untied her boots and kicked them off next to the dresser missing the full length mirror on the wall nearby. Then Jen stripped out of her cammies, laying them neatly across the bed. She looked at herself in the mirror, still in her bra and panties and white athletic socks. Her body was toned, curvy but in a tight, athletic way she was proud of while not being overmuscled. Still, she was no Laura, not in certain areas at least. She turned to the side a little, noting her firm bottom was as shapely as she could hope for, but her breasts were nothing compared to the Sergeant's lost love. Jen brushed her dark hair out with her fingers and shook her head to let it loose over her back. Her skin was white, pale even. Jen was not one to waste time tanning on the beach. Laura had probably had a full body tan, or at least risque bikini lines, Jen felt sure.

She sighed again and then turned away from her image as she slipped out of her bra and panties. The first thing she pulled out of the pink bag was the French-cut panties with the ribbons. Jen made a strange little grimace, like she was about to swallow bitter medicine rather than try on a pair of pretty panties. But she stepped first one ankle-sock clad foot and then the other carefully into the flimsy things and pulled them up over her legs, to her hips. They were so smooth against the bare skin of her newly shaved legs that it felt like a cloud caressing a pillow. They were nice, but they felt strange, cut so high at her pelvis that she could feel the dangly pink ribbons tickling her exposed flesh, teasing the tight tendons at her slightly protruding pelvic bones. If she kept the panties Jen imagined she'd have to have the ribbons cut off.

Next she pulled out the bra, which felt almost like nothing in her fingers. It had a satiny undercarriage but the top was an utterly revealing lace. As she put it on she could feel it cupping and lifting her small breasts. Was there even enough satin to cover her nipples? She had to turn and look in the mirror and sure enough she was pretty sure her nipples, swelling up a little from just... whatever... were plainly visible peeking through the lacy top hem of the bra. She shook her head and took a deep breath, amazed at how utterly impractical all this stuff was, and yet seeing how it did kind of present her body in a different kind of light, a feminine, frilly light she wasn't used to, Jen had to admire how the whole thing seemed to work, as if thousands of years of human trial and error had eventually discovered the perfect ways to show off the female form, and she was dressed in them now.

As Jen looked lower, at the panties, she thought she could make out her little pubic tuft through the satiny fabric. If Laura really wore this kind of stuff, Jen imagined, she must have been the kind of woman that agreed to shave herself bald down there. Jen shuddered with discomfort at the idea, figuring the Sergeant probably liked that.

She turned from side to side in the mirror trying to get a good look at herself from every angle. Her pale skin somehow looked sexier now with the colorful satin barely covering anything, but making her color look so much better by contrast, the scant material present more as a decoration, a hint to the male eye reminding it to wander where it probably wanted to go anyway. The bra definitely made her modest chest seem like a little more than it really was, for which Jen almost felt a sliver of gratitude to the saleslady stab her heart. It was hard to turn to the right angle though to tell for sure how the panties looked on her bottom. Why did she care even? All that should matter is if they fit, who would see a soldiers underwear besides a medic? And she'd never be caught dead in this stuff on duty anyway. But still, seeing herself in the mirror, it was totally obvious the stuff was carefully designed to show a woman's body off, to highlight what assets she had to their best effect. They were meant to be seen, and somehow it made her want to see what she looked like, to see how her body measured up.

Frustrated with the difficulty of getting a good view of herself, she went to the bedside and pulled her phone out, then tapped through to the built-in camera. She went back to the mirror and aimed the camera at the mirror, snapping off pictures as she turned. Then she looked through the images, suddenly more than satisfied at how the lines of the panties seemed to accent the curve of her bottom almost perfectly. Jen smiled for a moment and then clicked the phone off and dropped it back on the bed, more satisfied than she really wanted to be.

She sat down on the bed and reached in the bag. It was almost empty, but there was that bottle of perfume and the stockings the Sergeant had the woman pick for her, and a lacy garter belt the same color as her panties. Jen pulled them out and looked at them, setting the stockings and garter belt on the bed for a second.

The bottle of perfume required closer scrutiny. "Lady of the Night." Jen wrinkled her nose at the thought of a fragrance that basically announced to the world "I smell like a whore." She was a little curious what kind of tawdry notes the perfume would hit and she wafted one small spritz onto her wrist, rubbed her wrists together to warm it up the way her mom always did, and then sniffed. Shockingly, Jen didn't hate it. It wasn't cheap or garish at all but rather pleasant, a bit of jasmine maybe with a little citrus of some kind. An odd combination that worked nevertheless. She had expected it to smell like neon and spermicide, but after thinking about if for a second Jen realized that hookers have to smell good to attract men. She smelled her wrist one more time and then lifted her hair and spritzed once on each side of her neck, under her ear. Not bad really, especially if she could just ignore what it was called.

Then Jen turned to the stockings. Did she really want to put them on? No, not really, but in for a penny in for a pound. Maybe it was the nice smell of the perfume, but she just wanted to see what she looked like in the full outfit, like she was playing dressup only using a whore's closet instead of her mom's Sunday dresses.

She slipped off the little cotton socks and tossed them over with her boots and then put the toes of her right foot into one rolled up stocking, slowly unrolling it up her bare leg until it stopped mid-thigh. Just sitting on the bed, she noticed right away it had little pink rose patterns all across the top band, and the sheer fabric had little designs that ran the length of her leg, like it was trying to make her legs look longer. She slipped into the second stocking and then stood up to see what the full effect was.

Jen knew she had nice legs, but never really dwelled on them, but suddenly with the stockings covering her pale skin with sleek sheer elegance, and her thighs just visible above them, it was quite a sight. Once again, she tired turning this way and that to see how she looked from every angle, and once again resorted to the camera, snapping pictures of herself from every angle and then reviewing them as she stood in front of the mirror. It really was an amazing look. She thought about the heels the Sergeant had mentioned. She hated heels, but as she looked at the beautiful pictures of herself, she wondered what it would look like. It wasn't perfect, but she snapped off another round of shots, this time with herself up on tip toes, seeing how the muscles of her calves looked under the stockings, how the lines of her legs just seemed so much longer, endless practically. It didn't justify wearing stupid high heels, not really, but it did look good, she had to admit.

But the tops of the stockings kept slipping, so she finally sat down and puzzled out the garter belt, how to wriggle her way into it, clipping the little bands to the top of each stocking, having to redo them when she looked in the mirror and saw they weren't straight. Finally she took a few last shots of herself in the full whore's costume. As she sat on the bed, reviewing the shots, she didn't think she looked like a whore dressed like this. She looked like a nice girl dressed up in sexy underwear. Jen even entertained the thought of not throwing the stuff away when they went to camp, maybe finding somewhere to stow everything in town until she could come back and pick them up after she graduated. But she couldn't take this stuff into the camp and risk being the laughing stock.

Still looking at the pictures of herself, she tossed the camera on the bed, thinking she'd look at the pictures again after she undressed and decide then whether to keep everything or not. Jen unclipped the garter belt, slipping out of the stockings and stowed it away nicely. Then she looked at the panties and bra. They were so pretty, they really were. It was a shame not to wear them but the bra would clearly be useless on a hike, maybe even uncomfortable if it was really strenuous. But the panties, maybe she would wear them under her cammies. She'd have to make sure they didn't work up a real sweat doing anything too serious, but she could always score a few points with the Sarge later if she told him she was actually wearing them. He'd like that, it would probably cheer him up if he got in one of his Laura-funks.

So Jen packed away the bra and the panties and garter and perfume, but kept the panties on. After putting on her original clothes and washing her original panties in the sink and leaving them to dry again, she picked up the bag and put it inside her backpack. Then she opened the door to the bedroom and called out to the Sergeant. "Ok, you can come in now. I tried it all on and it fit just fine." She didn't mention she was still wearing the panties. Leave it for later, if she told him at all. For now it would just be her private secret. Jen sat down in the chair by the window, forgetting for the moment she'd left her phone on the bed as she waited for the Sergeant to come in so they could discuss what to do next with the afternoon.
 
Sitting there after sending the email he imagined what might be happening in the other room, he could have sworn he heard her kick her boots off hard, making them fly across the room perhaps taking out some cheap and nasty looking hotel decoration that actually costs a fortune in the bizarre world of hotel land. He laughed to himself a little, here he was in this room just having got back from buying lingerie with a woman that he had only met a day or so before and she is a soldier and so is he and she has no real idea of what will be expected of her. If it was all in a movie he would think bullshit on an epic scale and turn it off and yet it was happening right here and now in his life it was unfolding bit by bit.

He imagined her trying on the underwear, possibly making screwed up facial expressions as she looked at herself in the mirror all femmed up and slutty looking, he was hoping she would come out and show him, like it was no big deal two friends just sharing an experience, he realized of course that he was in male porn land again, the same land where the pizza delivery guy turns out to be a chick, a hot chick, a hot horny chick with low standards and sucks you off while you let the pizza go cold. There was no way Jen was going to come out in the lingerie and show him, he cast the thought out of his mind.

He looked through the photos of some of the other WASP recruits, not one was below a 7 out of 10, all attractive and all intelligent, he decided to leave a couple of files out, he wanted Jen to find them, to go through them, he wanted to see if she would start making any connections, would she see that they were all young beautiful women, would she see that perhaps the way she has been acting is the last thing that was wanted. He really hoped she would start getting the idea before arriving at camp, it would help her greatly rather then being surprised.

Lets see, he thought going through them, ahhh Corporeal Maria Nunez, Hispanic, dark hair and features, cute, 25 years old, who's next he thought, Private Samantha Armityage, blonde, blue eyes, very beautiful, 21 years old looks like she might be busty, next, Sgt Suzie DiMarchi, 32 years old, short dark hair, attractive, strong and stubborn looking, possibly fiery, yes that will do for now, just leave them on the bed, if she snoops good, he knew she would, she would want to check out her competition, to maybe find out more about the camp and the training, she will look for sure, he knew he would.

He thought he heard a camera noise from the room Jen was getting changed in, she was probably taking selfies he figured, not a bad thing, he wouldn't mention it, just let her explore and go with it.

She was probably struggling with the stockings and garter belt as well, he thought back to when he was younger and saw a stripper, she was doing her dance and wanted him to take her bra off, he struggled with the clip, never having done it before, he had to give up, embarrassed to not be able to remove her bra for her so she could expose her breasts for him, it was a monumental experience for him, after that he learnt more about the mysterious of female clothing of how to take it off but also how to put it on. He dated an older lady who still wore petticoats, his mind drifted once more to the layers of fabric under her dress, each layer removed another step closer to heaven.

Would she try the perfume on, that would be something that she could not remove so easily, he would find out soon of course. He wanted to take her out to buy shoes as well, that was something he forgot about, he would add it to his list.

He hadn't given her the key to her room yet, he once again wondered how she would be about it, would she ask straight up, hint, or just deal with it? They still had two more nights in the town, then they would be heading off on the train to the camp.

She finally came out, he could smell the perfume on her, "Smells nice" he said wanting to say more but still wanting to remain somewhat neutral, "So they all fit, that's great! Want to go out and get those shoes?" he asked keeping up with the idea of neutrality.

"We have to book our tickets as well for the train, shipping out day after tomorrow and all" he added.

"Excuse me" he said as he slipped by her, "Nature calls" he left to use the bathroom, knowing she would pounce on the files he had left out for her.
 
Jen sat in the chair, waiting for the Sergeant to come in now that she was done trying on her things. If she thought about it just a little, maybe moved around the slightest bit, the sexy new panties under her cammies felt totally obvious to her, especially compared to the rougher material of the pants legs against her bare skin. She was smiling to herself, thinking for a moment how she'd looked in the pictures she'd snapped off, sexy, kind of like Laura. Someday, after she was done with Special Forces, she'd want to settle down and raise a family like Dad did -- hopefully with a better bill of health of course -- and she could just envision this feminine side of her being useful when she found the man she wanted to commit to.

But that was a long time away. For the moment she just savored the feeling of it, a little glimpse of her future, a reminder of what waited for her when her duty was done. She got up, wondering why the Sergeant wasn't coming in. She had half expected him to burst in the moment she opened the door and called him, probably hoping for some peek. Jen smiled to herself at the thought he might actually have liked what he saw, nodding as she stepped out into the main room to see what he was up to.

He was sitting at the table, his computer still open with some files next to him. Jen stepped closer. Why was he still sitting out here? The lingerie had been so important to him, what hadn't he come sooner? Was it just another memory of a girl long gone, nothing to do with .Jen at all? She looked at the floor as she stood behind him, feeling the sexy panties under her heavy outer clothes, wondering to herself if he'd be so wrapped up in laptops and folders if she really had come out in just the lingerie.

Of course he turned to look at her just as that thought was crossing her mind, sending a flush of pink across her cheeks. The Sergeant sniffed and she barely stopped herself from smelling her arm pits like the guys always did during long field exercises. He just said she smelled nice. Nice. That's it? Jen shifted on her feet, a little annoyed. She had played his game, and now he acted like it meant nothing to him, like she'd wasted her time, just embarrassing herself. Or maybe she hadn't played his game well enough, she couldn't be sure, but it just felt wrong to her. She didn't like the feeling, but she had just wanted something... more from him.

He seemed glad everything fit. Jen waited for him to say something more, to ask for details, to make a comment about wanting to see her in the lingerie. But nothing. She waited for a few seconds in awkward silence. Finally she offered in a soft voice, "Well, yeah, they fit fine. Of course I could probably have tried it all on faster and not wasted so much of your time waiting if I had a key to my own room. Chick chock, I could have checked off that box in no time." She tried to sound casual about it, make the lingerie sound like less than nothing to her since it didn't sound like much to him at this point either.

All he'd said was it was good it fit. What did that mean? Maybe he thought she might look sexy in the lingerie and might fantasize about her, or maybe he was glad he wouldn't have to bother taking anything back. Again, she couldn't read him. Jen felt a little annoyed, off-balance. For a brief second she thought about dropping her trousers to let him see for himself, but that would be stupid, especially since he barely seemed to care. She didn't know exactly where to catalog the feeling, but she wanted the Sergeant to notice her effort, to register with him at least at the level of some stupid waitress if not like the goddess Laura herself.

Shoes. he wanted to buy shoes. High heels of course. The briefest thought flitted through her head of how she'd looked in the pictures, especially up on her toes, how she'd wondered if a pair of high heels would finish the look on her. But she forced it out of her head. Was he just playing games with her, stalling for time until these two days passed and he could go back to being the Sergeant back at camp, not having to babysit the new recruit, probably with stories to tell of how he'd tricked her into wearing lingerie? Again, she just couldn't tell.

Jen just shrugged her shoulders. "I guess. Shoes, sure, why not." But the Sergeant just got up from his seat and brushed past her to the latrine. Well, when he went there he made it seem like the latrine.

As the bathroom door closed and locked, Jen looked around the room. Finally, though, her curiosity got the better of her. His laptop and folders were right there in the open. Technically it was probably wrong, but if she was supposed to be Special Forces, maybe she should be learning how to do reconnaissance, learning how to gather information. And she was curious what kept the Sergeant so absorbed while she had been trying on the very lingerie he'd bought for her in the very next door room.

Jen tapped one key on the laptop, very quietly. The screen saver popped up and when she moved her finger on the trackpad a little it gave way to a password protected login screen. If she were in a movie she would probably just type in the password "Laura" and it would work, but this was real life and the Sergeant was clearly making sure nobody looked at whatever emails it was he was sending.

But he had left the folder out right there on the bed next to the table, with a few pages clearly inside. Probably a list phone numbers for all the waitresses and high school girls and lingerie clerks in this hick town. She glanced at the bathroom door, and then surreptitiously opened the folder with one finger tip, a motion looking almost like she didn't really mean to do it. The top page looked official and had a picture of woman on it. Jen sat down in his seat and looked closer, her curiosity now too much to contain.

The form was strange though. There were no aptitude scores, no performance evaluations from Basic or marksmanship results. Just a name, Corporal Maria Nunez, along with an age and a few physical measurements. Corporal Nunez was just a little older than Jen, and all she could tell for sure from the little written on the page was that the woman had Jen beat by one cup size. Most of the page was a full body picture of her. It wasn't a military headshot either, more like a candid shot that seemed to capture her with a smile, looking incredibly pretty, especially with her dark Hispanic hair flowing over her shoulders, dark eyes twinkling. In the picture she looked like she was in the middle of some dance routine or workout, wearing a leotard that showed off legs Jen thought looked almost as good as her own. Corporal Nunez was smiling to the camera in a way that seemed she didn't know it was there. She was very fit, sexy in that way Jen was learning the Sergeant liked.

She would have thought it was some sort of military singles thing the Sergeant was a member of -- as if he needed the help -- except in the upper right corner of the photo sheet was stamped a big round log with "WASP" clearly written inside the circle.

Jen looked at the next page. A blond model, blue eyes of course, just 21 -- not even old enough to be college educated! And the girl, Private Armityage, both from written numbers and ample photographic evidence, had a chest that was rather amazing, making Jen feel rather inadequate despite being raised to not care about that kind of thing. But she couldn't help wondering how a girl who was that... top-heavy... could possibly carry out special forces missions. She might be able to seduce the Sergeant if she put on a waitress outfit, that was clear, but crawl through a muddy field in the middle of the night with an RPG in her arms? Jen just couldn't see it. What was she doing in the program?

Another page, another beautiful woman. This woman looked a little older, at least with short hair that might work on a mission. She at least had a certain determined look about her, but again, she was sort of stunning. Where were all the alpha chicks, the kind of women Jen was expecting to have to struggle to beat out to make the roster? Every one of the girls was pretty, like they were more for seducing enemy soldiers than killing them.

Jen looked up into the mirror over the Sergeant's table. She looked at her features, imagined herself with makeup like the girls in the folder, the way her mother always wanted her. Her mother had been convinced she could have been a model -- if she was taller, Jen had always countered -- but her mom wasn't the only one. Maybe she just wasn't the Sergeant's type, but a lot of people thought she was pretty. She flipped through the three pictures again. Jen wasn't sure, never one to focus on her own beauty, but she had to think that in the right light with the right makeup and clothes and all that crap, she might look just as unlikely a candidate for WASP as the three girls in the folder. And she wondered, was there a page somewhere with a picture of her swimming or running laps at the track, her own body on display without knowing it? Why had she been selected? It had been this nagging feeling as she'd looked at the Sergeant himself. What qualification did she have beyond intelligence and general fitness that there must be many soldiers who shared?

She looked at the photos again. Did she need to be pretty as well as smart and fit and fierce? Was that an actual qualification? It had to be illegal right? How could they....

Jen heard the toilet flush and quickly flipped the folder shut and jumped out of the chair. Just before the Sergeant came out she looked down at his laptop and saw it was still showing the login screen which hadn't been there when he left. Oh, why had she touched it? Why did she have to get her nose into everything?

She gave the laptop lid a quick flip, shutting it and hoping it wouldn't draw attention. As the Sergeant stepped out, she thought about the shoes he wanted to shop for, thought about the girls she was competing with. It wasn't enough to be the smartest or the fastest, was it? And she didn't even seem to register at the level of a waitress in the Sergeant's eyes, not unless he was teasing her at least.

She stepped away from the laptop, wanting to draw his attention away from her snooping. She wish she had her phone so she could have pretended to be texting or something. Where was her phone? It would be no big deal except she'd been snapping off pictures of herself on it and didn't want the housecleaning staff coming in and finding it and, well, best that she found it. Hadn't she learned from the girls in the dorm who'd done those topless photos that ended up making the rounds?

"Sergeant!" As he stepped out, Jen's mind flashed to the three girls in the folder, suddenly imagining to make the squad she would have to compete with a whole platoon of girls who were just as pretty as she was and knew how to get the attention of a man like the Sergeant. Jen felt like a total failure now in that department. All this time she was talking up how tough she was, how fast she could run, her shooting. He hadn't cared, more interested in waitresses than the recruit he was sent for. Was figuring out how to get him to think she was pretty as important as everything else? How demeaning to women in general, but the alternate thought was unbearable, of flaming out of the program and going home without a position to watch her dad slowly slip away, a disappointed old man.

"Sergeant, I..." she, tried to put her hip out a little, like she'd seen models do sometimes, one of the poses her mom had tried to teach her back when she had tried to get her an audition -- it had gone nowhere. "Could you do me a big favor?" She tried to smile, tried to let her eyes smile too, like the way the blond girl did in her photo. It felt unnatural to Jen, but she kept trying. "Could you please call my phone? I can't seem to find it. 555-5555. And then, why don't we shop for shoes like you said? I couldn't help thinking how nice the lingerie would look with the right shoes." Was it too late? He seemed already convinced she couldn't hold a candle to the other recruits. But her dad didn't raise her to go down without a fight no matter how much she'd prefer to avoid it.
 
Did she just call out? He thought to himself, he was too busy with the folders to hear properly, in any case if she was going to show him how the lingerie looked he would prefer her to walk out and show him, he liked the idea of her doing the walk, the grand entrance and reveal, of course he knew it wasn't going to happen, not yet anyway, maybe never, but certainly not now. Sure enough she came out and was dressed in her normal clothes and had the perfume on, he had to go to the toilet as he passed he let her know that she smelled good, he knew she wanted a lot more, that what she had just done was monumental for her and that she wanted a lot more praise and attention then just "smells good", but really what did she expect? I mean she told him it all fit which was good, but if she wanted a fuss, if she wanted to be admired and for a discussion to take place then really he had to see her in it, he had to see her wearing the clothing.

This is where things were a quagmire for the Sgt, he couldn't tell her to do anything, it had to be up to her, he could suggest things sure, he could try and influence her but he couldn't straight up say "Put the lingerie on and dance for me" that could be a sexual harassment case this early in the game, when they got to camp it would all be different, of course the women could refuse any request and then leave the camp, but as yet Jen was not in the camp, he had to be careful.

He went to the bathroom, he knew that she would already be snooping on the files, anyone of course would be, he did his thing in the bathroom and waited, he wanted her to have a good look, he locked his laptop, she was probably trying to fluke the password as well he thought, she probably wouldn't guess it anyway, sure she would get some of it, "Laura" but there were special numbers afterwards that unless you really knew Laura she would never get.

He waited a while and then when he felt it was long enough he flushed the toilet so she would hear it, he imagined her scampering around now trying to look innocent, he would have to try hard to keep a straight face when he walked out, he was already laughing and how to compose himself.

He stepped out and sure enough there she was looking as though butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, she was looking like she had no where to put herself, very awkward indeed, he had to remind himself not to laugh again, it was all too cute.

She called out to him, probably to distract him from seeing the laptop wasn't on sleep from her attempt to hack into it, he had to play along, he didn't want his game to be up already.

"Oh yeah sure" he said to her about her phone, he picked his up and dialed the number she told him to, it started to ring from the other room, "Yeah we can go shoe shopping and then go book the tickets at the train station before coming back to our room" he said to her not wanting to mention her own key, still holding back on that wanting to increase their time together in the same room.
 
Jen heard her phone's ringtone -- the Halls of Montezuma -- start to play just a couple seconds after the Sergeant dialed. It was just as she started to the bedroom, the Sergeant behind her, that he finished his suggested plan for the day, a bit of shoe shopping, pre-booking tickets and then going back to their room, so she couldn't respond as immediately as she wanted to the way he said that. Our room.

She homed in on the phone in "his" bedroom and then went back out to "his" living room but he was already at the door ready to go and she let it go, the moment gone. It was trivial anyway. Jen didn't want to be the nit-picking pain-in-the-ass recruit before training even started, and besides she could just ask for the key when they got back.

As he stepped out she followed him.

Her mind was already off the "our room" business and back to the bee that was truly buzzing in her bonnet -- the pictures of the other recruits, all of them improbably hot. Jen had gone through basic and even without paying any attention at all to makeup or tailoring her outfit to be tighter fitting like some of the female soldiers did, Jen had been more-or-less the prettiest one in her unit if the comments of more than a few guys were to be believed. Some of the women were down right ugly for sure, but most seemed just normal in a very acceptable way, but not in the way that had the guys buzzing around them the way they did with Jen, making her shoo them off and fight for her privacy and space to compete and perform. It seemed like all the "babes" and "hot girls" most of the guys went so gaga over just didn't join the military in such great numbers, like they had better things to do with their time.

But it seemed like whoever assembled that folder was assembling just about every hot young soldier in the forces. Including Jen? It seemed so. Every girl in that folder, though, seemed a cinch to capture the Sergeant's attention, if Jen's observations of the man were correct. It was almost like he'd selected them himself, a bunch of Lauras. But he was just a Sergeant, he couldn't have that much sway could he?

As she caught up to him in the hallway, settling her stride in with his, she looked up to him. "Uh, Sarge, mind if I ask you about the program a little? How do... who selects which recruits make the unit, at the end of training? Is it just the brass? Or do they, for instance, take into account the... opinions... of Sergeants and field trainers and such? Whatever the criteria might be." If the Sergeant was helping pick, and the field was filled with girls who seemed to pluck at his heart strings, Jen didn't have a chance. At least not the way things were going so far. She was going to have to figure out how to make a better impression with him. Or just hope against hope that the man with hands on face-to-face time with the recruits would have no say over her future. How likely was that?.
 
He laughed as he heard her ring tone, how apt, time to storm the beaches boys, he said to himself. He followed her into the bedroom where the phone was ringing, she seemed to want to get to it first, yes, yes she did take some selfies of herself in the lingerie he thought to himself. He didn't want to see them though, he wanted to see it for real before viewing photos, women who showed him racy photos of themselves never excited him much. He was a romantic of sorts, he liked the mystery and intrigue, the unraveling of a woman's outer wear to see what was underneath, to see her flesh gift wrapped in lace and soft fabric.

He knew her mind was spinning yet again, she had seen some of the recruits now, she couldn't and wouldn't admit it of course but she had seen them and was starting to wonder again, about the nature of the training, the purpose for which they were to be used. She was still GI Jane, she would learn to be Marta Hari, she would learn to be more than just a blunt killing machine.

He left her and walked down the hallway, she caught up to him and as expected asked some questions about the course, he had her hook line and sinker it was all coming together.

She asked about who selects the recruits, who decides on who makes it, he looked at her for a moment.

"Well, as you know they put out an advertisement for women to apply if they were interested, about 2,000 applied I believe, of those 2,000 they, the powers that be, the Colonel being one of them whittled it down to 300 candidates, women who would be suitable for WASP if they passed, there was no point of course in selecting women who would not make good WASP's from the outset" he smiled at her before continuing.

"We need 50 women, these 50 will be selected from the women who pass the course, there will be no favoritism, just straight up ability to pass the course, we are expecting many will drop out in the first couple of weeks alone, it will be a challenging course Jen, that is why they provide counselling on this one, I hope you will feel that you can talk to me about any problems or feelings you have about the training when it starts" he explained to her.

"Ok, you have your phone, lets go shoe shopping and get those tickets!" he said to her.
 
Jen listened to the Sergeant's little tale of how 2000 women eager to join Special Forces were somehow reduced to a field of 300 "suitable" WASP candidates -- the representative sample of which appeared to be "suitable" to appear in Maxim's hot 100 based on what she saw in his folder. Somehow, Jen was found "suitable" as well, which was why she was even here, and it made her head spin a little to grapple with how she felt about that.

Her whole life Jen had tried to live by a standard of achievement and ability, not privilege and appearance. Living up to her father's example in that regard had always meant everything to her. But if appearance made the difference between being able to make him proud of his Special Forces daughter and not even getting to try out, then what was wrong with the fact someone had found her face or her body or whatever attractive enough to fit in here, to try out? Would it be any less upsetting and embarrassing if she'd qualified for this program based largely on favorable cheekbones and genetics, come so close to achieving this dream on the coattails of her looks, and then failed out?

The Sergeant's smile unnerved her slightly, and made her strangely aware momentarily of the way the silky panties shifted under her cammies as her legs tried to keep up with his. Fifty out of the 300, those were her odds, and her cheekbones and fit body that might have gotten her into the program weren't going to be what got her through those odds, because it clearly seemed like all the "suitable" candidates were attractive as well to say the least. Was he saying her ability to fire a rocket launcher or hit a target at long range would be the difference? Then why recruit just good looking women?

Jen was too lost deep in thought to say anything for a few minutes as she walked along, mulling his final comments as well about how challenging the course was going to be and the need for counseling. The thought of sharing her problems and feelings with the Sergeant, as if he could be some sort of emotional support for her was equal parts laughable and intriguing, depending on whether he'd spent the last 5 minutes asking out a waitress or sharing thoughts about his dead girlfriend.

She followed the Sergeant on autopilot, barely checking the street for herself before following him into the crosswalk, her mind consumed with all the new information he'd dumped on her -- unintentionally obviously, especially since he didn't even know she'd seen all the pictures of the other candidates.

But would it matter? Would she really need counseling? How much counseling would she need for firing a rifle or crawling under barbed wire or running 10 miles in full gear? Maybe medical attention. Maybe a good electrolyte drink or tips for better use of night vision goggles. But counseling?

Jen let these thoughts roll around in her head, a dull certainty around her anxious heart that there was something she was missing, something critical for success, but she just couldn't quite reach it yet. Let it rest, kid, don't chase it and it will come to you. Dad's words came to her again, and she shook her head, trying to let go of all the thoughts about sexy recruits and what kind of training required intensive counseling, and how she could capitalize to make her dad proud.

Finally, feeling kind of awkward saying anything after such a long silence and aware he was watching her, Jen tried to reengage with the Sergeant. "Well, if you have to do the counseling for 300 women Sergeant, you might end up needing more counseling than me by the time the program is done. That's a lot of messy feelings and insecurity for a guy to have to deal with." She tried to lighten it up a little more, to keep her own head from turning morose and wallowing in her questions about the upcoming course. "I can give you a little does right now, just so you can get used to it if you like."

Jen didn't wait for him to answer, delaying only for a breath to gather her resolve. This is what the Sergeant had said would be coming up, so she decided to take his broad hint at face value. Sharing feelings with counselors would be important. Could she do that? She wanted to show him she could, even if she did kind of self-censor. At least she could give him the *impression* she was up to it, even if in her heart Jen couldn't imagine actually requiring such services for herself.

"So... what I'm feeling is... nervous about the program, and nervous I'm going to screw up my chances by saying or doing stupid things around you that will convince you I'm not worthy before the program even starts." She felt her face reddening, forcing herself to share even that feeling unfamiliar and uncomfortable to her, especially with the Sergeant. "And... I feel that even though it makes me feel silly and ridiculously girly, I want to find the right pair of shoes to go with the lingerie we picked out. I think it might be a bit of Laura's influence, your stories about her kind of touched me a little, moved me how much you care about her still, I don't know. Like I said, it's silly. How'd I do, Sarge? Do I pass counseling practice? Or does it need more work. And more importantly, are you ready to drown yourself in a vat of testosterone now at the thought of listening to weeks and weeks of that?"
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom